


Forever Like a Family

by stellarfluid



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, F/M, M/M, and i dont censor myself in actual writing, warning for swearing too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-03-28 04:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13895883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarfluid/pseuds/stellarfluid
Summary: Hell had come to earth, bringing the dead back to life. Rhys and Fiona are trying very hard to keep themselves and the ones they love alive, and join forces to do so. It’s this new little (slightly dysfunctional) family against the world, and together, they search for hope.Zombie Apocalypse AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi my name is aerith and im a borderlands lesbian
> 
> i dont really have much to say abt this except for the fact that its very self indulgent and kinda very heavily based on the walking dead's way of doing things with the zombies! twd is the only zombie media ive consumed, and i love the concept of everyone having different names for the zombies also lol.
> 
> anyway i hope this is interesting to somebody out there lol!! thanks for reading, and please comment if you enjoy it!

Rhys was with Vaughn when the world began going to hell. They were in their apartment - Vaughn was making dinner and Rhys was sitting on the couch, wrapped a blanket and suffering through one of his awful migraines. The news was on, and while Rhys hated watching the news (it was always sad stuff, like another shooting or natural disaster, and when it wasn’t sad it was either politics, which wasn’t any better, or something dumb that didn't matter). But he didn’t change it, because the remote was out of his reach and he didn’t feel like moving.

There was sad stuff on, of course. It was also a bit horrifying.

There was a report about the body of someone who had died in the hospital seemingly coming back from the dead, but everything that made that person _a person_ was gone. When they had “woken up” (that’s the phrase everyone was using. It was unsettling) they had immediately grabbed and bit a huge chunk out of the arm of a nearby family member. The family was soon ushered out of the hospital room, and the bit person had been taken to the ER where they were now dying of a terrible fever. The news anchors were now talking with doctors and scientists trying to come up with theories or explanations, but none of them seemed plausible.

“Well that’s… terrifying,” Rhys heard Vaughn say. He hadn’t noticed Vaughn standing where the kitchen and the sitting area met, holding a plate of food and medication for Rhys in one hand, and a glass of water in the other. He set those down on the coffee table in front of Rhys and grabbed the remote. “Maybe we should watch something else,” he said, flipping to another channel before returning to the kitchen to grab his own plate of food, then sitting down next to Rhys. The two spent the rest of the night watching one of their childhood movies that had turned out to be playing on one channel, leaning against each other and trying hard not to think about what had been on the news.

They hadn’t turned on the news since, but had heard all over the place about this strange new epidemic sweeping the country. They heard about people dying, then coming back as seemingly mindless, violent creatures. Yvette begun talking about how tired of hearing about it she was. It wasn’t affecting them, they probably had nothing to worry about. Rhys wanted to believe her, acknowledging that none of the reports had been local, but constantly had this sinking feeling of dread in his gut.

Then they saw one.

He, Vaughn, and Yvette had all going out for lunch together, like they usually did, at a little restaurant within walking distance from the building they worked at. While they were walking home, Rhys and Vaughn holding hands, Vaughn spotted it, and stopped, pulling Rhys to a stop too as he stared. Rhys looked too, and was overcome with fear. One of those dead-alive things were in their city, he thought with terror as he tightened his grip on Vaughn’s hand.

“Oh, god,” he heard Yvette whisper, then she grabbed his free arm. “Let’s go,” she ordered as she began to fastly walk away, dragging Rhys and Vaughn with her.

As the week went on, there had been more and more sightings of those things roaming the streets nearby, some who showed signs of dying of sickness or natural causes, others with a giant bite or two taken out of their flesh. As people continued to question what exactly these things were, and how their bodies somehow came back alive when the person had most definitely died, and if these people were even still _people_ at all. No one knew. No one had any idea.

More, and more, and more began to show up. Schools canceled, and eventually work places did too, in fear that any of those creatures could get people on their way. Rhys and Vaughn ended up stuck in their apartment, and Rhys couldn’t help but to watch the news, too afraid not to know what was happening outside their door.

It began to get really bad outside, and while Rhys was beginning to go stir-crazy, but was too afraid to leave their little home. He and Vaughn tried to distract themselves by playing their favorite video games and watching their favorite movies together, but neither could shake the feeling of impending doom that hung over them constantly. Rhys had far more trouble falling asleep, too. Which sucked, because he was already dealing with nightmares before this whole thing went down.

One night, Vaughn had fallen asleep laying on top of Rhys after they had finished one of their movies. Rhys laid on the couch staring at the ceiling, one arm resting on Vaughns back as he ran the other through his hair, _wishing_ he could fall a sleep but, frankly, too afraid to. Then he heard something outside their door that terrified him.

He heard footsteps outside the thin walls of their room, and raspy breathing, soft growling. He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled Vaughn a little closer, feeling Vaughn’s chest press against his own as he breathed, now really that he _was_ asleep, and this was one of his nightmares, and in a couple of seconds Vaughn would be shaking him awake with a worried look on his face, asking if he was alright and if he would like a glass of water or something.

But time continued to pass and Rhys continued to hear the sounds, and he knew he had to accept the fact that he _was_ awake and this _was_ happening or else… or else…

He and Vaughn would actually possibly die.

He kept his eyes shut as he forced himself to remember all the stuff he had heard on the news about this dead-alive things. He knew the sounds he heard fit the description of what the things sound like, and that was almost enough to make him cry. He remembered they were attracted towards noise. That they apparently weren’t very smart. That people believed that those things were still _people_ , that the person’s soul and consciousness still remained in that body, but Rhys couldn’t help but to believe that was unlikely. And if you wanted to kill those things, you had to get them in the brain.

He also knew the he and Vaughn probably had to get out of the building before those things got into their room and killed them both.

He sat up as much as he could with Vaughn laying on his chest like that, and began trying to wake him without making too much noise. He was too afraid to even whisper, afraid that even the littlest sound would draw those things onto them, but Vaughn was a pretty heavy sleeper and usually only woke up in the middle of the night when Rhys ended up talking in his sleep or something.

 _“Vaughn,”_ he hissed, silently praying to any god out there that those things didn’t hear him, “come _on!”_ He continued whisper Vaughn’s name, and eventually sat up all the way and shoved Vaughn off of him. That worked, and Vaughn groggily put out an arm to catch himself, sleepily asking “What?” before immediately being shushed by Rhys. 

Vaughn rubbed his eyes, then turned to look at Rhys, seeming to wake up a bit once seeing Rhys’ face. “What?” he asked again, this time whispering, now very concerned.

“Do you hear that?” Rhys asked, and the room fell silent, spare for the raspy growling and the footsteps from the hall. Vaughn went pale.

 “Oh god,” he whispered, “those are those _things?”_

“I… I’m pretty sure,” Rhys answered. “I think we need to try and get out.”

Vaughn nodded, and got off Rhys and off the couch. “We should definitely bring some stuff with us,” he said quietly, moving to the kitchen area. “Can you grab backpacks out of the closet?” Rhys nodded, grabbing the bags and putting one on the counter next to Vaughn, who was pulling food out of the cupboards. “I’ve got some water bottles in the fridge,” he continued, and Rhys turned to some of those out too.

“I’m gonna… gonna pack us some clothes,” Rhys told him, and Vaughn nodded as Rhys went into the bedroom.

Rhys knew he shouldn’t pack too much, so he only packed a couple of shirts and a pair of pants for each of them, then found a light blanket and shoved that in there, too. He noticed his hands shaking as he did so. His breathing was jagged as he tried to think clear enough to try and figure out what exactly they were doing. Here they were, packing up necessary belongings on a whim. Rhys knew he was probably going to die out there, in the world, not knowing where safety was, if _safety_ even existed anymore. He took a shaky deep breath, closing his eyes again and gripping the pack in front of him to ground himself. Then, he picked up the backpack and swung it over his shoulder, and returned to the kitchen.

Vaughn was standing hunched over his laptop on the table. “God, what are we doing?” he asked softly, not looking up as Rhys entered, and in all honesty, Rhys was relieved by this. Vaughn had been acting so calm, making Rhys fear that he was just being dumb and scared over something that wasn’t a big deal, so knowing that Vaughn was also afraid was a strange comfort. “I’m trying to find more information about these things and what we should do, but there’s not much out there. Everything says the same thing. ‘Get them in the brain, they are attracted to noise, stay out of populated areas,’ and all that but that’s… it. Nothing about where they came from or how to actually stay safe from them.” He sighed, and closed the laptop. “But if populated areas are dangerous we sure as hell can’t stay here. We have to leave.” He look at Rhys, an anxious look in his eye. “We have to leave,” he repeated. Rhys nodded.

“We… we should probably be armed,” Vaughn continued after a while of him and Rhys just standing in silence and looking at each other. He grabbed some knives and some dishrags from a drawer, wrapped each of the knives one of the rags, and handed on to Rhys instructing him to put it in his pocket. Rhys silently did so, and Vaughn followed suit. He slipped a third one into his backpack, just in case.

The two went quiet for a minute before Vaughn said, “We need to go. Grab your phone, too. You probably won’t be able to charge it ever again once it dies but we should probably have some way to contact Yvette once we get out of here.” Rhys grabbed his phone from its place by the couch where he had plugged it in less than 8 hours earlier.

There was suddenly a loud pounding on the door as he moved to do so, and he jumped and cried out, clasping his hand over his mouth as he did so to muffle his shout. Both he and Vaughn turned to stare at the door with wide eyes, listening at fear to the shuffling and scratching noises and the snarling noises coming from right outside it. A terrified silence hung in the room aside from those noises and Rhys’ heavy breathing as he tried his hardest not to cry. He and Vaughn were gonna die there that night, oh god, oh god…

He felt someone grip on his left hand (he was blind out of his left eye - he always had been), and turned to see his beloved boyfriend Vaughn beside him. And Vaughn smiled, a real, genuine smile that really comforted Rhys and filled him overwhelming _love._ He was scared. He really, really was. But at least if we were going to die, Vaughn would be right there with him so he didn’t have to be alone.

He leaned down to kiss Vaughn, and for a while, everything was okay. It was just them, in a temporary state of peace.

A very _short_ temporary state of peace that was shattered by a shriek coming from the far end of the hall. Rhys and Vaughn pulled away from each other, startled, staring with terrified eyes. They heard the scratching at their door stop as all the creatures in the hallway began moving toward the sound, which the two were sure came from the opposite side of the hallway

to the flight of stares. The two looked at each other.

“I think this is our only chance,” Rhys said.

“Yeah…” Vaughn replied.

“Do you think we’ll make it?” Rhys asked. He was afraid.

“I… don’t know,” Vaughn admitted, gripping onto Rhys’ left hand and pulling his knife out from the rag and his pocket, holding it in his other hand. “Maybe. But we have to try.”

Rhys nodded, and went to the door, still holding Vaughn’s hand. “On the count of three,” he whispered, his free hand on the doorknob. “One… two… three!”

And he opened the door.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fiona and Sasha are thrown into the apcolypse. (And August. He's there too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA i did it i updated at a decent time.
> 
> im super embarrassed abt my writing lol and im terrified that the characters are ooc so tell me what you think if you can! thanks a ton!!

Fiona was with Sasha when the world began going to hell. But then again, when wasn’t she?  
The two were waitresses together, and while it wasn't the best job in the world, but it paid rent, and that’s all that mattered. Fiona hoped that sooner or later the two would make enough money to get out of this city, or at least the sh*tty part of the city, and go somewhere were the two of them could start a better life.

They were driving home late from work last night, Fiona driving despite being absolutely exhausted, letting Sasha rest in the passenger seat. Sasha stared sleepily out the window, and neither of them said anything to each other (they didn’t need too, and it was a comfortable silence) until Sasha said, “Hey, look out, someone’s jaywalking.”

Fiona pulled to a stop, a little relieved that Sasha pointed that out because she wouldn’t have noticed and would have hit the guy otherwise. She was a bit frustrated, though. There were crosswalks for a reason.

But what was weird then is that the jaywalker turned and began walking towards their car, slowly. Painfully slowly. “What the hell?” Fiona asked, squinting at the person.

“What are they doing?” Sasha asked, annoyed. “Should we just go around them?”

“Yeah, probably,” Fiona sighed, looking over her shoulder for any upcoming cars before pulling around the person. She was too tired to deal with this right now, and really just wanted to go home.

Sasha looked out her window at the person as they passed. “Oh my god.” she whispered.  
“What?” Fiona asked.

“Fi,” she turned to look at her sister, “he looked dead. Like, his skin looked rotten.”

“What?” Fiona repeated.

“It was really gross,” Sasha added.

Fiona was still tired by the time they got to their apartment, but Sasha was wide awake now. “Don’t you think that was, like, really weird? He looked dead, Fi, that’s not normal. And he came towards our car.”

Fiona shrugged. “Maybe he just had some sort of weird skin condition,” she said.

“Yeah, Fiona,” Sasha said sarcastically, “he totally had a skin disease. Which one of us saw him again?”

“Jesus Christ, I’m sorry,” Fiona replied, before sticking out her tongue. Sasha stuck her tongue out back. “I’m going to bed,” Fiona then said with a laugh, “See you. Love you.”

“Yeah, I love you too.”

Fiona was woken up the next morning to Sasha throwing her bedroom door going, “Fi, oh my god, I saw another one.” Sasha was a bit of a morning person (in the sense that she hated getting up in the morning but naturally woke up early anyway and could never go back to sleep so she would go running in the morning which would make her feel better. She was also, now, very fast), and was waking Fiona up at least 35 minutes before Fiona normally woke up. Fiona rolled onto her back with a sleepy groan.

“‘Another one’?” she repeated. “Another what?”

“Another person that looks dead,” Sasha answered quickly, “and this one is a woman I think so it’s not the one I saw last night.” She walked over to Fiona’s bedside and shoved her phone in Fiona’s face. “I took a picture. Look at this.”

Fiona rubbed her eyes sleepily, then turned to look at the picture. She furrowed her brow. “Jeez,” she said, “it looks like she’s been dead for days.”

“Right?!” Sasha said. “And she was like, breathing funny. Like, growling kinda.”

“Huh,” Fiona said softly. That really was wierd.

Fiona pushed herself out of bed and made some coffee, as Sasha made the two of them sandwiches. They sat at their kitchen table, Sasha staring out the window as they ate, in another one of their comfortable silences. Fiona looked up to see Sasha squinting at something she saw in the courtyard. “What?” she asked her younger sister as she furrowed her brow.

Then Sasha’s eyes widened. “Oh my god,” she said, then more loudly, “Oh my god!” She stood up, stepping closer to the window.

“‘Oh my god’, what?!” Fiona stood up too, setting her coffee mug down on the table.

“I think one of the dead-looking people just killed someone!” she exclaimed.

_ “What?!” _ Fiona stepped over and stood beside Sasha, squinting out the window alongside her sister. “Holy sh*t,” she continued, “are they  _ eating him?” _

“What is going on?!” Sasha asked. “Should we call the police?”

She ended up doing so. Fiona went back into her room to change, knowing that the police would most likely want to ask questions about what they saw and probably didn’t want to see her in her pyjamas. She stood at her wardrobe, staring at the mirror as she thought about what her sister and she had just witnessed. Was the part of the city they were living in really this dangerous? Now she really wanted to get out of there with Sasha if people were going to be  _ eating  _ each other on their  _ lawn! _

She heard sharp rapping on the front door as she finished putting on mascara (and no, she wasn’t putting on makeup for the police officer, he sure as hell didn’t deserve that. She just liked makeup) and quickly left the room to stand with her sister as she opened the door and greeted the officer.

“Stay away from those things,” the officer had told them after they had said what they saw, “they’re not people. They will kill you.”

“What do you mean, they’re not people?” Sasha asked.

“They’re dead,” the officer replied. Sasha and Fiona were surprised by this, and not knowing what to say, simply stared at the officer for a bit.

“If you have no further questions,” the officer then said, “I should get going. I appreciate you telling me what you saw, though, it could help us figure out more about these things. We’ll keep you updated.”

“Okay…?” Sasha said, still a bit confused.

“Bye, then?” Fiona added.

Then the officer left.

Fiona and Sasha continued living lives normally - or, as normal as you can get around there - trying to ignore the mass of dead people accumulating around them. Just don’t go near them, they told themselves, just keep driving and don’t make unnecessary stops. That easy!

They did go to check on Sasha’s ex a couple of times. Sasha and August may not have been dating anymore, but now that they were over their hating each other phase, they were still friends (they argued a  _ lot, _ which is why they broke up, but the arguments were always over something dumb and short-lived. Except for  _ that one, _ when neither of them even looked at each other for two weeks.) And Sasha worried about August. So they went to check on him.

He seemed to not even be worried about these flesh-eating dead people now roaming the streets. “I have a gun, so it’s not like I need to worry about anything,” was his reason why.

“Why do you even have a gun?” Sasha ask. “Literally why do you need a gun?”

“Because they’re cool, and we live in a dangerous area!”

“Okay, yeah, they’re cool, but you don’t  _ need _ one. I don’t have one! No normal citizen needs one!”

(Sasha was very passionate about potential gun laws. That’s one of the most common things she and August argued about. “It’s just stupid that people keep dying because of people’s gun obsession!” she’d say, to which August would reply, “But you’re acting like it’s the gun’s fault!” this would go on forever unless someone were to intervene and change the subject. Fiona was usually that someone.)

Despite their constant bickering, August and Sasha really cared about each other. Which is why when the flesh-eating dead people became too much, and most of that part of the city’s population consisted of them and Fiona said they had to leave, Sasha insisted on bringing August with them.

Fiona kept looking out her window as she got ready for their escape, looking at the hoard gathering in the front yard. Why did the world have to be so dangerous? Why couldn’t she and her sister live in peace? She angrily tossed a final shirt into her bag and zipped it up.

“Catch!” Sasha called as Fiona went into the kitchen, swinging the knife in a throwing-like motion in Fiona’s direction.”

“Don’t throw sharp things!” Fiona shouted in reply, putting out her hands as if the catch the knife that Sasha didn’t even throw. Sasha grinned and handed it to her. “If we’re gonna be getting the fuck out of here,” Sasha said, “we should probably be armed. Maybe August’s gun could come in handy.”

“Oh, so you want a gun now?”

“I mean…  _ kinda,” _ Sasha admitted. “I mean, I was just tired of people using them for mindless violence and other people defending them. You know.”

“Yeah.” Fiona honestly didn’t know why they were talking about this now. They were supposed to be evacuating. She changed the subject. “Is August coming? We gotta go.”

“I dunno. Didn’t answer his phone. Left a message.” Sasha sighed, slipping a knife in the side pocket of her backpack, where she could grab it easily. “Let’s just go,” she said, swinging the backpack over her shoulder.

Their evacuation went well until they made it to the courtyard, “well” meaning that there were no dead things in their building, anyway. Fiona knew it was a matter of time before they got in, though, and didn’t want to be caught when they did. They _ were  _ swarming the courtyard.

“We just gotta safely get to the car,” Fiona said quietly. “Shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Yeah,” Sasha replied, watching carefully at one of the things that had happened to spot them and was now starting to come their way, “we just gotta…  _ run!”  _ And then she bolted.

“Wait, Sasha!” Fiona said, “I’m not as fast as you, slow down!”

The two of them sprinted through the yard, dead things beginning to gather towards them. “I changed my mind!” Fiona called. “Do not slow down!  _ Do not slow down, keep running!” _

Sasha looked over her shoulder for a minute, her green eyes widening as she saw  _ just how many _ of the things had accumulated behind her sister. “Turn around!” Fiona then hollered, and Sasha did so just in time to see one of them right in front of her trying to grab her. She screamed a bit, and pulling the knife out of her pocket stabbed the thing between the eyes in a state of pure panic. It crumbled before her once she took the knife out, and she stared at it’s lifeless body for a moment as she tried to keep her breath.

Fiona soon skid to a stop next to her, and the two got back to back as they looked around. They noise they had been making seemed to attract the monsters, and now they were surrounded. The things were closing in, and fast. Fiona swore under her breath.

“Do you think we can take them all?” Sasha asked.

“We can try!” Fiona said, shifting her weight so she was in a better position. And the two of them actually managed to take quite a bit of them down, but there were  _ just too many.  _ Sasha kept going as Fiona stopped to catch her breath, but took a bit too long of a break -- one of the dead things suddenly grabbed her in the wrist. “Ugh, dammit!” She yelled, pushing against it and trying it keep his head away of from her skin. “Get-- off-- of-- me-- you--  _ lame-brain! _ ” She shouted, finally able to hold it off long enough to stab it through the forehead. She took a deep breath as it well to the ground.

“Ooh, lame-brain,” Sasha said. “I like that. I’m calling them all that now.”

After a little while longer of stabbing the things in the head (they had discovered that they would only die if you got them in the head), they realized there was no they could handle all of them. They leaned against each other, breathing heavily as they waited for more to come.

"Do you think this is it?” Sasha asked Fiona between huffs. “For us, I mean.”

“Maybe,” Fiona said. “It’d kinda suck to go like that, though.”

The pushed off each other again and went back into attack mode as the lame-brains began to get too close again. Sasha was about to swing at one when they heard gunshots.

“Whoa!” Fiona called as Sasha ducked down and covered her head, watching as lame-brains just collapsed around them. She eventually decided it would be a good idea to get down herself, crouching behind her sister as more fell behind and beside her. The remaining one’s attention was now focused on that noise, and began to flock in that direction, just to be shot down as well. Fiona stood up to take out the remaining few. She turned to whoever had helped them out.

“Sure are a lot of dead people in this place,” August said.

Sasha laughed. “Holy shit, August!” she said. “I guess that gun isn’t so bad afterall.”

“Yeah, yeah,” August replied dismissively. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

The three of them made it to the car, and Fiona pulled herself into the driver seat and put the key into ignition. Sasha got into the passenger seat, and August into the back as the car started. Several pairs of hands slammed against the windows as Fiona pulled out, causing Sasha and August to shout. “Do you think traffic laws still apply?” Fiona asked.

“Did they ever?” Sasha replied with a smile.

Fiona pulled out the apartment building’s parking lot, and the three of them skipped that (part of) town.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took so long im super sorry lots has happened! and like. i dunno. there are a lot of scenes that i wanna write but i dont wanna write the scenes leading up to them if u know what i mean so like. i dunno. writing is hard and im trying my best.
> 
> once again, let me know if the characters seem ooc! characterising characters correctly is important to me!
> 
> this one is a super short one since i was having touble writing it, sorry! i just wanted to get it out here!

Rhys honestly isn’t sure the hell they had gotten out of the city. They totally should have died on several occasions.

Right after they had entered the hallway, they were cornered by one of the dead-alive things. They had only gotten out of that situation because Vaughn had managed to grab it, slam it against the wall and drive his knife through its head. It had been terrifying, but admittedly, very hot. Rhys had no clue Vaughn had that in him. 

They are in the woods now. Vaughn, the genius that he is (well, maybe not a genius. Smarter than Rhys, though) thought that being among the trees would have it harder for the dead-alive things to see or follow them, and they could find some berries and stuff for food in there. Neither of them really know what berries are safe to eat, but… Rhys would rather die of poison than be mauled. The things could maul him  _ after _ the poison take him out.

Rhys is not liking their odds still. Or, he isn’t liking  _ his _ odds. He has much more faith in Vaughn than he does himself, knowing that Vaughn is strong, and pretty smart, and is better at acting suddenly in the moment than Rhys is. Vaughn is also good at climbing trees. That can totally be used to his advantage.

 

Rhys has his phone out now, checking online to see if the berries they have found will kill them or not. Vaughn is building a fire (they had googled how to make those too, these too aren’t really outdoorsy people), and looks up for a moment. “Is your phone about to die?” he asks.

“I mean,” Rhys says, frowning at the little percentage in the corner of the screen. “It’s getting pretty close. We can eat these, by the way,” he adds, gesturing at the berries.

“Oh great,” Vaughn says, honestly relieved. “Anyway,” he continues, “have you checked on Yvette recently?”

“No,” Rhys admits. “I mean, I called her like a hour ago.”

“She didn’t answer?”

“Nah.”

 

Vaughn pokes the firewood in front of him with a stick, frowning. “Hey, I’m sure she’s fine!” Rhys says, sitting down next to him. “Do you really think these mindless dead things are enough to take  _ Yvette _ down?”

“I dunno…” Vaughn sighs. “It’s just… scary? Not knowing where she is?”

“Yeah.” The are quiet for a moment, before Rhys says, “Do you want me to try again?”

“Yeah, kinda.” Vaughn replies. Rhys does so. No answer. He sighs and sits next to his boyfriend.

“I’m pretty sure she’s okay,” he says. Vaughn rests his head on Rhys’ shoulder.

“I sure hope so,” he says.

 

* * *

Fiona, Sasha, and August are stuck in traffic. Which really, really sucks, even when it’s not the apocalypse.

 

“Why is no one moving?” Sasha asks. The cars haven’t moved in at least 20 minutes. People are honking, and Fiona is getting restless. She taps at the steering wheel anxiously. 

“Those things are going to catch up with us eventually,” August says, looking out the window over his shoulder. “What are you calling them? Lame-brains?” Fiona hums absentmindedly in response. This is really stressing her out.  _ Why haven’t they moved? _

People are still honking. “They should not be doing that,” Sasha says. “Does no one watch the news? Or is everyone just stupid?”

 

Fiona leans back in her seat, trying to calm down and refocus herself. Everything is gonna be okay, she tells herself. They are going to get out of there, and they are going to be fine. But the constant honking is making her irritatingly anxious, and she feels like any minute she’ll slam her door open and yell until everyone shuts up.

 

Yeah, there’s no way that’s happening.

 

“I don’t think we should stay here,” she says. “There’s too much noise, we should probably get out.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” August asks, but Fiona is already unbuckling her seatbelt and grabbing her backpack from off the chair beside August. “Hey, hey, hey what are you doing?!”

Sasha doesn’t ask questions until she too is unbuckled and has her backpack in her hands. “Are we running away?”

“Yup,” Fiona says. “We’re just sitting ducks out here. We’re heading for the woods.”

“And you’re just leaving your car here?”

 

“Yup. Let’s go, Sasha,” Fiona says as she gets out of the car. The person behind them honks, long and loud, and Fiona pauses for a minute to flip him off before making a run toward the woods, August and Sasha on her heales. They continue to run even after they make it there, getting deep within the trees before stopping.

“Whew, okay,” Fiona says, leaning forward as she catches her breath. “Do you think we’re far enough from the road? The lame-brains should be catching up to those cars any minute.”

“We’re probably good,” Sasha pants. She sighs and stands up straight, looking around. “We gotta figure out what we’re doing,” she says.

“Yeah,” Fiona agrees. “Do you think we can live out in the wild?” she asks smiling.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Sasha says.

 

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the woods, Rhys is saying, “There is no way we can survive in the wild.” Vaughn agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol this part of the story is not at all working i'll figure it out though. im not giving up on this story i have too many ideas!!

**Author's Note:**

> hey so its 12:30am on a school night
> 
> anyway also as of now in this, rhys has two flesh arms! that's important! remember that! 
> 
> anyway thanks again for reading, lets pray for all of our sakes that i keep my sh*t together and actually update regularly


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